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The new asylum building was equipped to handle one hundred patients. Seven men, chosen by the Senate, were to serve as a Board of Managers. They would hire the superintendent, would review all operations and expenditures, and would visit the facility at least once a month to insure humane treatment of patients. This system remained in place until 1921 when a single governing board assumed these functions for all Missouri asylums.
"The law of kindness shall be the governing one in the institution, and all other qualifications will pass as nothing, if the disposition to carry out this law is absent."
Report of the Asylum Commissioners, 1854
"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do you, do ye even so to them,"
Report of the Asylum Commissioners, 1854
Missouri State Archives |
State Hospital nurses, c. 1914 |
| "Probable Causes of Insanity" among the inmates of the State Lunatic Asylum from the Report of the Superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum, Dr. Turner R. H. Smith, 1854. |
Missouri State Archives |
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